Clinical Methods: The History, Physical, and Laboratory Examinations

TLDR

Clinical Methods, now in its third edition, reviews the history and physical examination in depth, offering a focus on basic practice amid rising medical technology and costs. The third edition reorganizes its content into organ‑system sections, expands laboratory discussions, and includes chapters on test accuracy and clinical reasoning, providing a detailed guide to history and physical examination.

Abstract

In these times of burgeoning medical technology and runaway costs, it is a pleasure to find a medical textbook that emphasizes the more basic aspects of practice.<i>Clinical Methods</i>, now in its third edition, reviews the history and physical examination in depth. In addition, the book offers brief discussions of selected laboratory methods used in diagnosis. Compared with previous editions, this volume has undergone extensive revision both in content and organization. Following a brief overview, it is divided into sections based on organ systems. The introductory section includes a useful and well-written chapter on the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value of laboratory tests, as well as a chapter that takes on the difficult task of articulating the thought processes that are used in the collection and interpretation of medical data. The bulk of the text comprises a detailed discussion of the history and physical examination as related to a particular